I am gonna buy a new automobile this weekend. I am sure they are going to try and sell me the extended warranty contract when I get it. I have bought them in the past and I have not bought them in the past. They are usually quite expensive. I think the last one I bought was 2700 bucks. After a few weeks I cashed it in cause I felt I overpaid.

I have never gotten to use any of the extended warranties that I have purchased but I am also aware that a couple of trips to the dealer and it will pay for itself.

Anyone ever buy one of these and if so did you ever get to come out ahead?

I got one when I bought a 60" plasma tv, for 4 years I can use the crap out of it and not worry, if it died and I didn't pay for that I would be stuck using 20" monitor for a tv and couldn't afford a new one. So in some cases they might not be bad.

Msfann wrote:I got one when I bought a 60" plasma tv, for 4 years I can use the crap out of it and not worry, if it died and I didn't pay for that I would be stuck using 20" monitor for a tv and couldn't afford a new one. So in some cases they might not be bad.

Sounds like you really couldn't afford the first one.

To the OP, save your $$$ and put that same amount aside for any problems, add to that over time. Chances are you will still have that money saved when it's time for your next vehicle.

I would say it depends on the vehicle. Some vehicles are inherently high maintenance such as minivans, which have among the highest cost of ownership of all vehicles due to expensive part failures as they age. In general, though, vehicles are quite reliable these days and if something is going to catastrophically break, it's going to happen during the initial warranty period. Hammer on your new car pretty good for the first 10k to find the squeaks, rattles, leaks, and so on, get them fixed under warranty, and enjoy your ride for 250k miles or more.

The smart money is on following the maintenance intervals as suggested by the manufacturer and don't pay for the service plan.

Feel free to contact me if you need legal assistance. I have a great lawyer that helped me with an ex who violated my privacy and kept harassing me on MySpace and Facebook. He's very good. And there is legal precedent. - linuxpro

i didnt buy the extended care on my iPhone and have now paid 300 bucks replacing broken phones. that was dumb. (lets not turn this into a phone debate)

id say on electronics yes. you never know when theyre gonna go wonky.

on my car i purchased some extended warranty crap (car was 8 years old, from a Dealership) and not 6 months later i had some issues. took it in and lo and behold, what was wrong with the car wasnt covered. a sensor on the engine went out, sunroof wouldnt fully close, and an interior light on the door went out.

they replaced the light and sensor (about 150$) and said they couldnt tell me if the sunroof was under warranty without tearing the interior out. basically, if it was covered, it was free, if not, id be out a few hundred bucks not counting what was wrong with the sunroof. not a gamble i was willing to make. said screw it, ill fix it myself. (which i did later, hard to remove sunroof glass when the glass wont pop up and expose the bolts, but i managed. culprit? a piece of plastic smaller than a kernel of corn got stuck in the track and was tripping the pinch sensor)

anyways, after all that, a week later CEL comes back on. take it back and pull the WTF fix it for free it was just in spiel. turned out the Catalytic converter went out and was fouling the sensors. and i was IN LUCK! VW had extended the factory warranty as it was a known issue. so that was free! haha.

if it's electronics get a square trade warranty and be doneWith cars, it totally depends on the dealerSome guys see repeat business and others see cash out in repairs that sometimes are even coveredDo some googling on dealers in your area and go from there

RiggoReincarnated wrote:The timing chain went out on my 09 Corolla with about 70,000 miles on it. The 100,000 mile warranty saved me from paying well over 1000 in repairs to the engine after it went.

A timing CHAIN died, you sure not a belt? If that's the case, it sure shows there is some truth in the rumors that Toyota quality has been on the decline. That just shouldn't happen unless you were really abusing that car!

This is one reason I won't buy (used, being as it's all I can afford), a VW, Honda, Mitsubishi, or Nissan product; they are all "interference engines", meaning should the timing belt or chain snap catastrophic engine failure will ensue (pistons will smack into the valves and bend them and sometimes put holes in the pistons). I've gotten a few such cars free, but I'm not gonna pay for that. Not that these aren't good cars, some are quite good, just it's one worry I'd rather not have.

Someone mentioned Square Trade; I've gotten a couple of those on used phones from Ebay. They actually paid for a phone I used almost a year because the WiFi went out. On used electronics for eBay I'd swear by those guys!

RiggoReincarnated wrote:The timing chain went out on my 09 Corolla with about 70,000 miles on it. The 100,000 mile warranty saved me from paying well over 1000 in repairs to the engine after it went.

A timing CHAIN died, you sure not a belt? If that's the case, it sure shows there is some truth in the rumors that Toyota quality has been on the decline. That just shouldn't happen unless you were really abusing that car!

This is one reason I won't buy (used, being as it's all I can afford), a VW, Honda, Mitsubishi, or Nissan product; they are all "interference engines", meaning should the timing belt or chain snap catastrophic engine failure will ensue (pistons will smack into the valves and bend them and sometimes put holes in the pistons). I've gotten a few such cars free, but I'm not gonna pay for that. Not that these aren't good cars, some are quite good, just it's one worry I'd rather not have.

Someone mentioned Square Trade; I've gotten a couple of those on used phones from Ebay. They actually paid for a phone I used almost a year because the WiFi went out. On used electronics for eBay I'd swear by those guys!

Yep it was definitely the chain...as some of the valve needed to be replaced as well. It was an extensive repair for sure. Probably a freak occurrence as I don't see a history of this problem with Toyota

I bought the extended warranty because I had gotten tired of paying some expensive repairs on the old POS I had before it. Now I know better, just keep a buffer in your savings or on a credit card to cover car troubles if they come, lol.